UMass, UConn FB struggling for survival

Big time college football has never been part of the culture in New England. Only three schools in the six state region–Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut–even have an FBS program.

Of that trio of Boston College, UConn and UMass, only BC is part of a Power 5 conference and the Eagles have not participated in a significant bowl game for 33 years.

UConn and UMass can still be considered fledgling FBS programs. UConn didn’t make the conversion until 1999, UMass didn’t make the move forward until 2013.

Ironically, both programs are run by coaches who had stints at the schools when they played at the 1-AA (FCS) level. UMass coach Mark Whipple won a 1-AA national championship at UMass in 1998. Randy Edsall was at UConn when the Huskies moved up to the FBS level and guided them to a BCS game in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl.

This season both schools have stumbled from the start. UMass dropped to 0-6 on Saturday following a 58-50 loss to Ohio U.

UConn is now 1-3 after a 49-28 loss at SMU.

Both Edsall, who returned to Storrs this season, and Whipple, who has not been able to revive the Minutemen since he came back to Amherst four years ago, are admittedly frustrated with the slow starts. But both are committed to long term success.

The question that must be asked, however, is if that is a mutual feeling from the schools and their support base.

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5 Comments

bgu5284
on October 1, 2017 at 3:42 PM

First of all, it’s obvious that you’re making your observations by looking at UCONN’s record. Since you don’t watch any of UCONN’s games, you wouldn’t see any of the real progress being made. Rhett Lashlee has UCONN’s offense humming. Why don’t you look at UCONN’s offensive numbers compared to other FBS schools. Nationally UCONN’s offensive numbers are impressive. Defense is the problem but this week saw some improvement. Edsall is playing mostly true freshman and sophomores. They improve each week which you can’t say about BC and UMass. You are such a lazy reporter!

And another thing, I know you love to point out when you write about UCONN that we’ve been rejected three times for a slot in a P-5. Fact of the matter is UCONN would have been a far better choice than Louisville to backfill Maryland in the ACC. The ACC which prides itself on having great academic universities, turned a blind eye to Louisville’s dumpster-fire academics. Louisville should be kicked the hell out of the ACC and replaced by UCONN. And UCONN had way more success athletically than Louisville when the ACC invited them. But it won’t happen because the ACC is the dirtiest conference in America. Why don’t you write about that?

I agree with you that UConn would have been a better choice. But they did get rejected and in talking to people involved in the program, it will take a long time to get UConn up to speed in football and there appear to be no real options available other than the American